Specsavers County Championship
Division 1
Somerset 344 & 153 beat Surrey 231 & 164 by 102 runs

A THRILLING burst of three wickets in seven balls by Jack Brooks inspired Somerset to a 102-run victory against Surrey at Guildford that took the visitors back to the top of the County Championship table.

Surrey were bowled out for 164 in their second innings, losing eight wickets on the final morning in just over an hour and a half.

It is Somerset’s fourth win from five matches this season, and they currently hold a lead of 15 points over second-placed Hampshire.

Surrey started the day on 99-2, needing 168 more runs, and were making good progress until fast bowler Brooks blew them away.

Brooks removed nightwatchman Gareth Batty (14), then South African Test batsman Dean Elgar (0) and England wicketkeeper-batsman Ben Foakes (2) in a spell of 5-1-11-3 in the first 45 minutes of the final day.

Having slid to 120-5 as a result of Brooks’ triple strike, which gave him overall figures of 5-33, Surrey then took further heavy blows from seamer Tim Groenewald, who bowled Scott Borthwick for 45 with his first ball, and followed up by pinning Will Jacks (0) lbw in his second over.

Groenewald (3-29) picked up his third wicket when Rikki Clarke (8) edged to keeper Steve Davies, and the end was near for Surrey when Ryan Patel (27), wafted Craig Overton to Jamie Overton at gully.

It was all over at 12.34pm, when Morne Morkel (2) lofted Overton (2-59) straight to Jack Leach at mid-off, and Somerset had 22 points to Surrey's four.

Top of the table with 96 points, Somerset travel to fifth-placed Kent on Monday (June 10).

Afterwards, Somerset captain Tom Abell said: "I just could not be prouder of the boys, and this was a massive win for us.

"Surrey had eight Test players in their team and after yesterday I would probably have preferred to be in their position coming into today.

"But we said in the dressing room before play that if we bowled better than we did yesterday evening and started to build bowling partnerships then we could put them under pressure and that’s exactly what we did.

"The bowling unit were outstanding today, and as captain you know that they will give you everything.

"I also want to mention George Bartlett’s first innings hundred, after coming in when he did and playing so well in a tough situation.

"His innings, and the partnership he had with Tom Banton, changed the game for us after being 30-odd for 3.

"James Hildreth’s 64 yesterday was an important innings too.

"He’s a class act and he’s done it time and again for us.

"His runs were worth a lot more in the situation of the match at that time.

"There is another massive game now for us next week against Kent at Canterbury.

"We have a little bit of momentum now and we’ve gone top of the table, but we have to keep that going.

"It’s another big challenge for us."